Flux can import rows from delimited text files, with each row being written as a JSON or XML document to MarkLogic.

Table of contents

Usage

The import-delimited-files command imports delimited text files specified via one or more occurrences of the --path option:

  • ./bin/flux import-delimited-files \
    --path /path/to/files \
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" \
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

  • bin\flux import-delimited-files ^
    --path path\to\files ^
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" ^
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

The command uses a comma as the default delimiter. You can override this via --delimiter:

  • ./bin/flux import-delimited-files \
    --path /path/to/files \
    --delimiter ; \
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" \
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

  • bin\flux import-delimited-files ^
    --path path\to\files ^
    --delimiter ; ^
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" ^
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

The URI of each document will default to a UUID followed by .json. To include the file path at the start of the URI, include the --uri-include-file-path option. You can also make use of the common import features for controlling document URIs.

Specifying a JSON root name

By default, each column in a delimited text file will become a top-level field in a JSON document written to MarkLogic. It is often useful to have a single “root” field in a JSON document so that it is more self-describing. It can help with indexing purposes in MarkLogic as well. To include a JSON root field, use the --json-root-name option with a value for the name of the root field. The data read from a row will then be nested under this root field.

For example, including an option of --json-root-name Customer will produce JSON documents with the following format:

{
    "Customer": {
        "field1": "value1",
        etc...
    }
}

Creating XML documents

To create an XML document for each row in a delimited text file instead of a JSON document, include the --xml-root-name option to specify the name of the root element in each XML document. You can optionally include --xml-namespace to specify a namespace for the root element that will then be inherited by every child element as well.

For example, including --xml-root-name Customer --xml-namespace "org:example" in the options will produce XML documents with the following format:

<Customer xmlns="org:example">
    <field1>value1</field1>
    etc...
</Customer>

Ignoring null fields

By default, Flux will include any fields in a delimited text file that have a null value (this does not include a value that has whitespace) when creating JSON or XML documents. You can instead ignore fields with a null value via the --ignore-null-fields option:

  • ./bin/flux import-delimited-files \
    --path /path/to/files \
    --delimiter ; \
    --ignore-null-fields \
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" \
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

  • bin\flux import-delimited-files ^
    --path path\to\files ^
    --delimiter ; ^
    --ignore-null-fields ^
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" ^
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

The decision on whether to include null fields will depend on your application requirements. For example, if your documents have large numbers of null fields, you may find them to be noise and decide to ignore them. In another case, it may be important to query for documents that have a particular field with a value of null.

Specifying an encoding

MarkLogic stores all content in the UTF-8 encoding. If your delimited text files use a different encoding, you must specify that via the --encoding option so that the content can be correctly translated to UTF-8 when written to MarkLogic - e.g.:

  • ./bin/flux import-delimited-text-files \
    --path source \
    --encoding ISO-8859-1 \
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" \
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

  • bin\flux import-delimited-text-files ^
    --path source ^
    --encoding ISO-8859-1 ^
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" ^
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

Aggregating rows

The import-delimited-files command supports aggregating related rows together to produce hierarchical documents. See Aggregating rows for more information.

Reading compressed files

Flux will automatically read files compressed with gzip when they have a filename ending in .gz; you do not need to specify a compression option. As noted in the “Advanced options” section below, you can use -Pcompression= to explicitly specify a compression algorithm if Flux is not able to read your compressed files automatically.

Advanced options

The import-delimited-files command reuses Spark’s support for reading delimited text data. You can include any of the Spark CSV options via the -P option to control how delimited text is read. These options are expressed as -PoptionName=optionValue.

A common option to include is -PmultiLine=true for when your files have rows with values that include newline symbols.

The command defaults to setting the header option to true and the inferSchema option to true. You can override those two options or include additional Spark CSV options - for example:

  • ./bin/flux import-delimited-files \
    -Pheader=false \
    -PescapeQuotes=false \
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" \
    --path path/to/files \
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update

  • bin\flux import-delimited-files ^
    -Pheader=false ^
    -PescapeQuotes=false ^
    --connection-string "flux-example-user:password@localhost:8004" ^
    --path path\to\files ^
    --permissions flux-example-role,read,flux-example-role,update